Geometric modeling and associated with computational geometry

Geometric modeling is a branch of applied mathematics and computational geometry that

studies methods and algorithms for the mathematical description of shapes.
The shapes studied in geometric modeling are mostly two- or three-dimensional, although
many of its tools and principles can be applied to sets of any finite dimension. Today most
geometric modeling is done with computers and for computer-based applications. Two-
dimensional models are important in computer typography and technical drawing. Three-
dimensional models are central to computer-aided design and manufacturing (CAD/CAM), and
widely used in many applied technical fields such as civil and mechanical
engineering, architecture, geology and medical image processing.
Basic Geometric Modeling Techniques are
• 2-D Projection (Drawings)
• Wireframe Modeling
• Surface Modeling
Analytical Surface
Free-form, Curved, & Sculptured Surface
• Solid Modeling
Constructive Solid Geometry (CSG)
Boundary Representation (B-Rep)
Feature Based Modeling
Parametric Modeling
 Geometric modeling is a branch of applied mathematics and computational geometry that
studies methods and algorithms for the mathematical description of shapes.
The shapes studied in geometric modeling are mostly two- or three-dimensional, although
many of its tools and principles can be applied to sets of any finite dimension. Today most
geometric modeling is done with computers and for computer-based applications. Two-
dimensional models are important in computer typography and technical drawing. Three-
dimensional models are central to computer-aided design and manufacturing (CAD/CAM), and
widely used in many applied technical fields such as civil and mechanical
engineering, architecture, geology and medical image processing.
Basic Geometric Modeling Techniques are
• 2-D Projection (Drawings)
• Wireframe Modeling
• Surface Modeling
Analytical Surface
Free-form, Curved, & Sculptured Surface
• Solid Modeling
Constructive Solid Geometry (CSG)
Boundary Representation (B-Rep)
Feature Based Modeling
Parametric Modeling

Geometric models are usually distinguished from procedural and object-oriented models, which
define the shape implicitly by an opaque algorithm that generates its appearance. They are also
contrasted with digital images and volumetric models which represent the shape as a subset of a
fine regular partition of space; and with fractal models that give an infinitely recursive definition
of the shape. However, these distinctions are often blurred: for instance, a digital image can be
interpreted as a collection of colored squares; and geometric shapes such as circles are defined
by implicit mathematical equations. Also, a fractal model yields a parametric or implicit model
when its recursive definition is truncated to a finite depth.
Methods of defining points,lines,arcs and circle:
Methods of defining Surface modeling geometry:

Methods of defining Solid modeling geometry:

 Computational geometry is a branch of computer science devoted to the study of
algorithms which can be stated in terms of geometry. Some purely geometrical problems arise
out of the study of computational geometric algorithms, and such problems are also considered
to be part of computational geometry. While modern computational geometry is a recent
development, it is one of the oldest fields of computing with history stretching back to antiquity.
Computational complexity is central to computational geometry, with great practical significance
if algorithms are used on very large datasets containing tens or hundreds of millions of points.
For such sets, the difference between O(n2) and O(n log n) may be the difference between days
and seconds of computation.
The main impetus for the development of computational geometry as a discipline was progress
in computer graphics and computer-aided design and manufacturing (CAD/CAM), but many
problems in computational geometry are classical in nature, and may come from mathematical
visualization.
Other important applications of computational geometry include robotics (motion
planning and visibility problems), geographic information systems (GIS) (geometrical location
and search, route planning), integrated circuit design (IC geometry design and
verification), computer-aided engineering (CAE) (mesh generation), computer vision (3D
reconstruction).
The main branches of computational geometry are:

 Combinatorial computational geometry, also called algorithmic geometry, which deals with
geometric objects as discrete entities. A ground laying book in the subject by
Preparata and Shamos dates the first use of the term "computational geometry" in this sense
by 1975.[1]
 Numerical computational geometry, also called machine geometry, computer-aided
geometric design (CAGD), or geometric modeling, which deals primarily with representing
real-world objects in forms suitable for computer computations in CAD/CAM systems. This
branch may be seen as a further development of descriptive geometry and is often considered
a branch of computer graphics or CAD. The term "computational geometry" in this meaning
has been in use since 197

Combinatorial computational geometry

The primary goal of research in combinatorial computational geometry is to develop
efficient algorithms and data structures for solving problems stated in terms of basic geometrical
objects: points, line segments, polygons, polyhedral, etc.
Some of these problems seem so simple that they were not regarded as problems at all until the
advent of computers. Consider, for example, the Closest pair problem:

 Given n points in the plane, find the two with the smallest distance from each other.
One could compute the distances between all the pairs of points, of which there are n(n-1)/2, then
pick the pair with the smallest distance. This brute-force algorithm takes O(n2) time; i.e. its
execution time is proportional to the square of the number of points. A classic result in
computational geometry was the formulation of an algorithm that takes O(n logn). Randomized
algorithms that take O(n) expected time,[3] as well as a deterministic algorithm that takes
O(n log log n) time,[4] have also been discovered.
Problem classes
The core problems in computational geometry may be classified in different ways, according to
various criteria. The following general classes may be distinguished.
Static problems
In the problems of this category, some input is given and the corresponding output needs to be
constructed or found. Some fundamental problems of this type are:

 Convex hull: Given a set of points, find the smallest convex polyhedron/polygon containing
all the points.
 Line segment intersection: Find the intersections between a given set of line segments.
 Delaunay triangulation
 Voronoi diagram: Given a set of points, partition the space according to which points are
closest to the given points.
 Linear programming
 Closest pair of points: Given a set of points, find the two with the smallest distance from
each other.
 Euclidean shortest path: Connect two points in a Euclidean space (with polyhedral obstacles)
by a shortest path.
 Polygon triangulation: Given a polygon, partition its interior into triangles
 Mesh generation
 Boolean operations on polygons
The computational complexity for this class of problems is estimated by the time and space
(computer memory) required to solve a given problem instance.
Geometric query problems
In geometric query problems, commonly known as geometric search problems, the input consists
of two parts: the search space part and the query part, which varies over the problem instances.
The search space typically needs to be preprocessed, in a way that multiple queries can be
answered efficiently.
Some fundamental geometric query problems are:

 Range searching: Preprocess a set of points, in order to efficiently count the number of points
inside a query region.
 Point location: Given a partitioning of the space into cells, produce a data structure that
efficiently tells in which cell a query point is located.
 Nearest neighbor: Preprocess a set of points, in order to efficiently find which point is closest
to a query point.
 Ray tracing: Given a set of objects in space, produce a data structure that efficiently tells
which object a query ray intersects first.
If the search space is fixed, the computational complexity for this class of problems is usually
estimated by:

 the time and space required to construct the data structure to be searched in
 the time (and sometimes an extra space) to answer queries.
For the case when the search space is allowed to vary, see "Dynamic problems".

Dynamic problems
Yet another major class is the dynamic problems, in which the goal is to find an efficient
algorithm for finding a solution repeatedly after each incremental modification of the input data
(addition or deletion input geometric elements). Algorithms for problems of this type typically
involve dynamic data structures. Any of the computational geometric problems may be
converted into a dynamic one, at the cost of increased processing time. For example, the range
searching problem may be converted into the dynamic range searching problem by providing for
addition and/or deletion of the points. The dynamic convex hull problem is to keep track of the
convex hull, e.g., for the dynamically changing set of points, i.e., while the input points are
inserted or deleted.
The computational complexity for this class of problems is estimated by:

 the time and space required to construct the data structure to be searched in
 the time and space to modify the searched data structure after an incremental change in the
search space
 the time (and sometimes an extra space) to answer a query.
Variations
Some problems may be treated as belonging to either of the categories, depending on the context.
For example, consider the following problem.

 Point in polygon: Decide whether a point is inside or outside a given polygon.

In many applications this problem is treated as a single-shot one, i.e., belonging to the first class.
For example, in many applications of computer graphics a common problem is to find which
area on the screen is clicked by a pointer. However, in some applications the polygon in question
is invariant, while the point represents a query. For example, the input polygon may represent a
border of a country and a point is a position of an aircraft, and the problem is to determine
whether the aircraft violated the border. Finally, in the previously mentioned example of
computer graphics, in CAD applications the changing input data are often stored in dynamic data
structures, which may be exploited to speed-up the point-in-polygon queries.

Numerical computational geometry

This branch is also known as geometric modeling and computer-aided geometric
design (CAGD).
Core problems are curve and surface modeling and representation.
The most important instruments here are parametric curves and parametric surfaces, such
as Bézier curves, spline curves and surfaces. An important non-parametric approach is the level
set method.
Application areas include shipbuilding, aircraft, and automotive industries. The modern ubiquity
and power of computers means that even perfume bottles and shampoo dispensers are designed
using techniques unheard of by shipbuilders of the 1960s.